Process of extracting rosin and turpentine from wood



Dec. 25, 1928.

A. A. SHIMER PROCESS OF EXTRACTING ROSIN AND TURPENTINE FROM WOOD Filed Dec. 30, 1926 By I 17 TOR/V6715 Patented Dec. 25, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ABRAHAM A. SHIMER, OF BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA, ASSIGNOR TO HERCULES POWDER COMPANY,,OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

PROCESS OF EXTRACTING ROSIN AND TURPENTINE FROM WOOD.

It is known to extract turpentine and rosin from waste wood b first chlpping, shredding, or otherwise disintegrating Waste WOOd, conveying the wood chips to an ex tractor, steaming to drive off turpentine and condensing the turpentine and steam and separating the turpentine from the water, and then, by means of gasoline or other suitable rosin solvent, dissolving out the rosin, and separating the rosin from the gasoline.

In this operation not less than about eight per cent of the gasoline extractable rosin is left unextracted in the waste chips, and much of the turpentine and pine oil is not recovered. If the chips are used for the manufacture of paper, the residual rosin must be removed during the digestion to pulp in the paper plant, requiring more cooking liquorthan if the residual rosin were not present. Furthermore, the size and shape of the spent chips are not entirely suitable to the manufacture of paper pulp.

By means of my invention I accomplish several important results. Larger percentages both of the rosin and turpentine are recovered, not more than from three to four per cent of gasoline extractable rosin being left in the spent chips, while from 10 to 20 per cent more crude turpentine is recovered; the recovery of turpentine, pine oil and solvents is substantially expedited; the expense of removing the rosin during its digestion to paper pulp is materially reduced; and the physical condition of the spent chips is such as to make them entirely suitable for use in paper mill digesters for the manufacture of paper pulp.

A diagram, in side elevation, of an apparatus in which my improved process is adapted to be carried out is shown in the drawings, although it will be understood that the process need not be carried out in an apparatus of any particular construction.

The waste wood is fed to a chipping, hogging, shredding or disintegrating machine a. I shall, for convenience, designate this machine as a disintegrator and the operation as a disintegrating action, it bein understood that any eflicient vknown mac ine for preparing chips for paperpulp or for turpentine and rosin extraction may be employed.

The chips are conveyed, by a conveyor 6,

Application filed December 30,1926. Serial No. 157,887.

from the disintegrator a. to crusher c, which may comprise a pair of rolls spaced apart a a sllght distance, depending upon the size of the pieces being fed from distintegrator a. The rolls act to positively feed the chips through them and crush them into flattened form, so that they emerge therefrom in the shape of thin discs'of various sizes and of rregular contours, the operation not tearng or destroying the fibre. This step is an important and vital one.

From the crusher c the crushed flattened chips, or wood discs, are transferred by ,means of a conveyor 6 to an extractor f, whlch has an opening 9 at the bottom for steam, and is connected at the top, through a turpentine vapor outlet pipe 71., with a condenser 2'. The extractor is also provided with a bottom valved outlet pipe is, through which the rosin solution is drawn oil.

The operation will be understood by those skilled in the art from the foregoing description, but may be amplified as follows: The wood is first chipped, bogged, shredded or otherwise disintegrated in disintegrator a. The chips are subjected to the action of crusher a, by which they are crushed into flattened form, as above described. The crushed, flattened chips are then transferred to extractor f. This part of. the operation is preferably a continuous one and is so conducted in the described apparatus. After the extractor f is filled with the crushed, flattened chips, steam is admitted by the extractor through pipe g, thereby driving ofi turpentine and water vapor to the condenser i. The admission of steam is continued until all the turpentine is driven ofl. Gasoline is thenadmitted at the top of the extractor and percolates down through the mass of crushed, flattened chips and dissolves the rosin. The admission of gasoline or other suitable hydrocarbon continues until the mass of crushed, flattened chips is completely immersed therein. The gasoline should be allowed to remain in the extractor until the rosin has been dissolved. This may require (say) one hour, but the factor of time is a variable one, dependent on temperature and on the size of the chips and their content of rosin. The gasoline-rosin solution is then withdrawn through pipe k. -superheated steam is then admitted through pipe 9 to drive off the gasoline. The disintegration of the Wood in disintegrator a is the first step in the most usual process for preparing chips for paper pulp or for turpentine and rosin extraction. The described treatment in the extractor is also well known in the art. The novelty of the process re-' sides in disintegrating step and the old turpentine and rosin extraction step, of the step of crushing the chips into flattened discs, in

order to put the chips into the physical condition for the subsequent known treatment for extraction of turpentine and rosin. It will be understood that the efficiency of the process as a whole involves the subjection of the waste wood totwo successive operations, in one of which the wood is chipped, hogged, shredded or otherwise disintegrated and in the other of which it is crushed into a flattened form. Upon the physical condition of the chips conveyed to the extractor depends the successful operation of the process and the attainment of the desired result of increasing and expediting the recovery of turpentine, pine oil and rosin and of putting the spent chips into condition the interposition, between the old.

better adapting them for use in the manufacture of paper pulp.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In the process of extracting resinous products from resinous Wood and preparing the resinous wood for the manufacture of paper pulp, the steps which consist of disintegrating the wood and thereafter crushing the disintegrated wood to form thin flattened pieces without tearing and destroying the fibre.

2. In the process of extracting resinous products from resinous wood and preparing the resinous wood for the manufacture of paper pulp, the steps which consist of disintegrating the wood to form chips and thereafter crushing the chips sufficiently to form therefrom thin flattened pieces without tearing and destroying the fibre.

In testimony of which invention, it have hereunto set my hand, at Brunswick, Georgia, on this eighteenth day of December, 1926.

ABRAHAM A. SHIMER. 

